INTRO TO COLONIAL

THE CONQUEST OF LATIN AMÉRICA

1492- Columbus “discover

s America”

1501- Portugues

e exploration of Brazil

1507- First time

America is

shown on a map

1508- Juan

Ponce de Leon

takes over

Puerto Rico

1509- Juan de Esquivel takes

Jamaica and

Alonso de

Hojeda leads

an expediti

on to the

Venezuelan and

Columbian

coast

1511- First

Spanish town on

the America

n mainland: Santa Maria la Antigua

de Darien (Conquest of Cuba)

1513- Discove

ry of the

Pacific Ocean

1519-1521

Hernan Cortes

conquers the

Aztecs for

Spain

1522- Papal letter Omnimoda

entrusts evangelizat

ion of natives in Spanish

America to regular clergy

1532-6 Francisc

o Pizarro

conquers the Incas

1541 Foundation of Santiago

de Chile

Spanish colonization of the

Americas The Spanish Empire was looking for a shorter trade route to Asia in order to obtain spices, silks, goods etc. Accidently, they “discovered” the Americas and soon discovered that it was an enormous content full of GOODS. Foods, spices, materials, labor and most importantly gold and silver.

The Spanish had been fighting the Muslims in the 700 year war and needed more gold/silver to continue funding their domination of Europe.

To further cement the Spanish as leaders of the world, they would name a portion of the Americas as New Spain.

Conquest of Mexico

The Spanish campaign began in February 1519, and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtémoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.

During the campaign, Cortés was given support from a number of tributaries and rivals of the Aztecs, including the Totonacs, and the Tlaxcaltecas, Texcocans, and other city-states particularly bordering Lake Texcoco.

The Conquest of the Aztecs

Cortes and his remaining men hover around the Valley of Mexico to recover and revisit the subject cities they had made peace with

One group in particular, the Tlaxcalans, add 40,000 warriors overnight to Cortes’s rodeleros

Cortes and Dona Marina locate the fresh water aqueducts to Tenoch and destroy them, stop goods to the city and wait for months as the Aztecs starve and die from smallpox

The Spaniard/Indigenous coalition experience a hard defense by the Aztec army, street by street, until the Templo Mayor plaza is reached and its shrines torched

The Aztec Empire ends and the Colonial Period starts August 13th, 1521 AD

Conquest of South America

Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish conquistador, who was a distant cousin of Hernán Cortés. Reports of Peru's riches and Cortés's success in Mexico tantalized Pizarro and he undertook two expeditions to conquer the Incan Empire

In 1532, accompanied by his brothers, Pizarro overthrew the Inca leader Atahualpa and conquered Peru.

Three years later, he founded the new capital city of Lima. This area would be known to the Spanish as the Viceroyalty of Peru.

During the siege of Cuzco, Francisco Pizarro had 200 Spaniards and 30,000 native Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas.

The column of Diego de Almagro, who went into Chile, had 500 Spaniards, 100 African slaves and about 10,000 auxiliary Indians.

Colonization TheoryAccording to various theories, colonization of another people/country usually follows the same pattern.

To fully colonize a nation you must conquer/dominate:

Culture

Spirituality

Identity

We will examine all 3 of these areas through art.

Old World

■ Old World native plants. Clockwise, from top left: 1. Citrus (Rutaceae); 2. Apple (Malus domestica); 3. Banana (Musa); 4. Mango (Mangifera); 5. Onion (Allium); 6. Coffee (Coffea); 7. Wheat (Triticum spp.); 8. Rice (Oryza sativa)

Old World to New Worldcat (domestic – wild species already present)

chicken

cow

donkey

ferret

goat

goose (domestic – wild species already present)

honey bee

horse

rabbit

pig

rats

rock pigeon

sheep

silkworm

water buffalo

Old World to New world

Infectious Diseasesbubonic plague

chicken pox

cholera

common cold

diphtheria

influenza

leprosy

malaria

measles

scarlet fever

smallpox

typhoid

typhus

whooping cough

yellow fever

Smallpox will be the primary disease to kill the Amerindians. It is estimated that around 90% of the indigenous population in the Aztec Empire is killed by disease alone.

European Customs

Along with the introduction of Spanish as the official language of New Spain (Viceroyalty of New Spain) and the Viceroyalty of Peru, we also will have the introduction of European customs.

Dress

Religion

Societal customs

Government

Taxation

Segregation

Conquest & Negotiations

Serge Gruzinksi: “The Conquest- a clash of completely different world views as well as a military undertaking- entailed not only the political and economic transformation of the former Aztec Empire but also unleased one of the most terrible iconoclastic campaigns in history. Buildings, sculptures, feathered costumes, pictorial manuscripts, and untold objects of unexceptional beauty were all destroyed as evidence of pagan beliefs. Nevertheless, a few distant Indians hid or even continued to make prohibited images well into the seventieth century , especially in remote areas..”

Religion The only religion acceptable in Spain was Catholicism, and an almost extreme form made its way to the Americas.

However, a hybrid form of Catholicism would become the norm.

Indigenous beliefs would not be fully conquered nor destroyed.

Example: Aztec mother goddess Tonzantin replaced by the Virgen de Guadalupe

Evangelization Through Art • The conversion efforts of the friars in

New Spain yielded a syncretism, where although the Indians practiced the new faith with a relatively adequate understanding of its Doctrine, they integrated many native symbols into it, as well as internal and external pagan religious customs.

• New forms of art emerged in workshops, schools and secular and religious spaces in the former Tenochtitlan (now renamed Mexico City) and Cusco, Peru.

• The hybridization of art and culture will create the foundation for our present day Latin American cultures.

• Art will become the most effective method of colonization

• Catholic friars introduced many ceremonies and rites all throughout the regions of Latin America, that substituted the religious ceremonies the Amerindians had for their pagan religions.

• However, the main problem the friars faced was that often Indian conversions were, at best, superficial. New converts often understood Christian doctrine poorly or incompletely.

Syncretism The friars in their conversion efforts took advantage of coincidental similarities between Christiana and native religions.

Since both religious systems featured structures of classifying divine beings, whether Aztec deities or Catholic saints, with special attributes and qualities.

The ancestral cult o the rain and agricultural fertility god Tlaloc offers a typical example of syncretism.

For Tlaloc, the friars substituted the image of San Isidro Labrador, the protector of the fields and the harvest.

Interestingly, many images of San Isidro actually feature the face of the pagan god Tlaloc. This indicates that for the natives of certain parts of Mexico, San Isidro and Tlaloc, although dressed differently, represent the same personage.

European Architecture The importation of European styles of art were immediately transported into the New World, especially when it comes to monastic buildings.

Architecture is always a symbol of power.

Churches, monasteries, official buildings and entire cities were constructed in the European fashion and were erected immediately after the Conquest.**

styles:

Renaissance style

Gothic Style

Baroque Style

Neoclassical Style Santuario Diocesano de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

Zamora, Michoacán, Mexico

European Art Along with the architecture and customs comes of course, the introduction of European art and European techniques.

Pre-Columbian sculptures of basalt are now replaced with images made of marble and metals.

Throughout the Colonial period, we will have new styles of art that are created through a hybridization of two cultures from opposites sides of the world

COLONIAL ART

José de la Mota, Allegory of the New World

1721

■ Christ Delivering the New World to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the

Pope, 1721

Codex and Codices A codex (from the Latin caudex for "trunk of a tree" or block of wood, book; plural codices) is a book constructed of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, papyrus, or similar materials, with hand-written content.

Through codices we are able to “read” the daily life of the Aztecs

The Aztecs were the illustrators of many of the popular codices we know today.

Franciscan Friars were asked by the Spanish crown to report on various aspects of daily life in New Spain or Mexico.

The Aztecs did not create codices on their own like the Maya and Mixtec did

A large portion of the Aztec codices were lost in various circumstances, either at sea or by theft

The first codices were drafted less than 10 years after the conquest of Mexico in August 1521 AD

Codex MendozaThrough codices we are able to study and understand

the daily life of the Nahuatl people .Codices cover everything from medicine, political

practices, culture, customs, religion, school structures, daily life and flora and fauna

Codex Mendoza was created 14 years after the Conquest of 1521

intent that it be seen by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.

It contains a history of the Aztec rulers and their conquests, a list of the tribute paid by the conquered, and a description of daily Aztec life, in traditional Aztec pictograms with Spanish explanations and commentary

Most codices are written in Nahuatl and Spanish

TequitquiTequitqui: “Indo-Christian” a style of art produced during the colonization of New Spain.

It is the Indian redefinition and reinterpretation of European art and architecture. It combines the European artistic tradition with the Indian aesthetic.

Renaissance influence, importation of prints.

Painted by an artist in Texcoco, we have the traditional iconography of Tlaloc rendered flat, in accordance with our traditional codice style.

However, the body of the god, reveal’s the painter’s adoption of chiaroscuro effects, and a contrapposto stance probably derived from the prints of the Apollo Belvedere, a widely illustrated Roman sculpture. A graphic melding of two pagan gods.

Left: Tlaloc from Codex Ixtilxotchitl, 1582 Right: Print of Apollo Belvedere

AmantecasAmantecas: Aztec feather workers

Feathers were valued similarly to jade and turquoise in Mesoamerica. They were considered to have magical properties as symbols of fertility, abundance, riches and power and those who used them were associated with divine powers

Featherwork pieces took on European motifs in Mexico. Feathers and feather works became prized in Europe.

Feather work, especially the creation of "mosaics" or "paintings" principally of religious images

Israhel van MeckenemMass of St. Gregory1490-5Engraving

The Mass of St. Gregory 1539

The oldest dated feather work with a Christian subject. Made by or for Diego Huanutzin, nephew and son-in-law of Moctezuma II to present to Pope Paul III.

Pope Gregory the Great kneels before an altar and receives a vision of Christ and the symbols of the Passion.

Based on a Flemish engraving of around 1500, the amanteca eliminated complex architectural details while including subtle patterns in the men’s robes and on the altar cloth that seem more indigenous than Spanish.

Battle Scene. Church of San Miguel

Ixmiquilpan Mexico 1569-72

warriors dressed as jaguar and coyote knights wielding obsidian-edged clubs, who fight centaurs and semi-nude figures carrying bows and arrows.

Despite the prominent Classical motifs, pre-Conquest iconography-including speech scrolls, shields, and trophy heads- predominates.

The scenes were based on actual theatrical performances held in the area.

One theory holds that the murals show the local Otomí (who had already converted to Christianity) fighting pagan Chichimecs (who continued to resist the Spaniards).

Another suggests that the murals allude to Aztec war songs, and that the victors should be seen as warriors of the Sun, uprooting forces of darkness from a flowery Christian heaven.

Either way, this multivalent mural cycle spoke to the timeworn theme of Good versus Evil and was thus acceptable to the Augustinians.

Mural of the Annunciation

Convent of San Juan Bautista, Cuauhtinchan,

Puebla, MexicoAnonymous

1569Over the door in the cloister, there is a curious mural painting of the Annunciation to Mary by the archangel Gabriel. (Announces to Mary that she is carrying the Christ child)

Painted in a European style- adapted from a late Medieval print or engraving

The Christian image taken from a medieval engraving is flanked by an eagle and a jaguar painted in typical prehispanic Codex style.

Martin SchongauerThe Annunciation, c. 1484

Jean Pucelle Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, 1324-28

The eagle represents the god Huitzilopochtli, the Sun of the Day and jaguar is Tezcatlipoca, The Sun of the Night.

The two elements as a couple represents the duality of light and darkness

The warriors called Eagle or Jaguar Knights had the sacred charter to maintain the Life of these deities and the balance of the Universe through warfare and sacrifice.

The portrayal of an eagle may also relate to the town name of Cuautinchan, signifying House of the Eagles. 

CrossMonastery of St.

Augustin Acolman, Mexico 1550The cross is the central symbol of the

Christians and represents the death of Christ who with his resurrection made possible the redemption of human beings.

A realistic head of Christ in bulk at the intersection of the arms and the shaft, a chalice, pliers, a ladder, the spear, a palm lead, a human bone and a skull.

The arms of the cross are decorated with vegetal motifs like flowers, vines, and leaves. Each arm ends with a stylized fleur-de-lys.

The base that supports the cross intends to emphasize the theme of Calvary, showing a crude image of the Virgin of the Sorrows.

INRI Augustinian emblem

The arms are decorated with vegetable motifs like flowers, vines and leaves

Symbols of the Passion

Skull with bones

Virgin of the Sorrows

the Christian cross was understood by the Axis Mundi that connected the gods of the Upperworld and Undrerworld with the human beings on the surface of the earth.

In Mesoamerican vision of the World, the cycle of planting and harvesting of the maize became sacred because it was the main source of sustenance for humans. At the same time the cycle of the maize was a metaphor for the death and rebirth of humankind.

This same agricultural and cosmological belief was somewhat compatible with the Christian idea that God came to the world incarnated as Jesus Christ dying with a great deal of suffering like any mortal create. He rose form the dead and the blood of his sacrifice on the cross would be a symbol of the redemption.

So, for the Indian view, Christ is the Maize God and the Cross is the maize plant. The fleurs-de-lys at the end of the arms of the cross are the sprouts of the maize plant that represent the endless rebirth of fertility and life.

The carved flowers, vines and leaves that decorate the arms are the vines of beans and squash that the grow together in the milpas

God + Viracocha

The belief in the god Viracocha, who created, the entire universe, was easily incorporated into the idea of God the Father in Christian doctrine.

Since it was believed that only the name, not the concept, was wrong, the insertion of the Indian deity into a Christian framework did not a pose a problem.

Luis NiñoThe Virgin Mary of the Cerro Rico of Potosí,

Peru 18th century

Another substitution is of the Virgin Mary for the Andean earth mother goddess Pachamama.

Typical are vibrantly colored and intricate detailed paintings of the Madonna, often shown with a wide triangular gown, whose profile has been related to the symbol of Pachamama: a mountain.

Notice the mountain-shaped virgin which, unlike representations elsewhere, were very common in Andean religious art of the Spanish Empire.

When the viewer links this moon to the vertical lines above it, the resulting form takes on the profile of an Inca ceremonial knife (tumi).

The Virgin Mary with Indian DonorsLa Paz, Bolivia

1752Caciques, like their peninsular Spanish and Creole noble counterparts, commissioned paintings for their homes of themselves worshipping at the feet of Our Lady or patron saints

The female is dressed in Aymara textiles (appropriate to the La Paz area), all three males wear elaborate feathered headdresses that identify them as Chuncho peoples.

Chunchos, an indigenous highland group who were associated with aggressive reputation

During festivals would have played the wild and warlike “pagan” Indians who dwelled just beyond colonial control and menaced “civilized Christian society”

Notice* whitness of Indian skin

La Virgen de Guadalupe Location: Tepeyac Hill, Mexico City

Date: December 12, 1531

4 apparitions to Juan Diego, a Indian native

December 9, 1531, a native American peasant named Juan Diego saw a vision of a maiden at a place called the Hill of Tepeyac, which would become part of Villa de Guadalupe, a suburb of Mexico City. Speaking to him in his native Nahuatl language, the maiden identified herself as the Virgin Mary, "mother of the very true deity" and asked for a church to be built at that site in her honor.

Following the Conquest in 1519–21, the Spanish destroyed a temple of the mother goddess Tonantzin at Tepeyac outside Mexico City, and built a chapel dedicated to the Virgin on the site. Newly converted Indians continued to come from afar to worship there, often addressing the Virgin Mary as Tonantzin

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, and the world's third most-visited sacred site

José Juárez, The Virgin of Guadalupe with Apparitions, Spain. 1656 Oil on Canvas

* Juan Diego is the first indigenous Catholic saint of the Americas

No single image had a greater impact on the history of Mexican art than that of the Virgin de Guadalupe

Virgin of Guadalupe serves as a pure intercessor between man and God, and a symbol of maternal love and fertility

Miguel GonzálezVirgen de Guadalupe1698, Mexico CityOil on Canvas on Wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl (enconchado)(on display at LACMA)

• The Virgin placed atop an eagle perched on a cactus, Mexico City’s legendary coat of arms. This is a significant detail that points to the rapid Creolization of the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the second half of the seventeenth century, and her increasing association with a local sense of identity.

• This technique is known as enconchado and exists solely in Mexico.

• Enonchados were inspired by imported furniture from China, India and Japan.

• Generally the shell inlay is used for bodies, while the faces and other fine details are rendered in oil paint.

Copy of Juan Diego’s tilma from1531

José Ribera y Argomanis

The Virgin of Guadalupe

1778, oil on canvas• The familiar apparition is compressed and attention is given to the two Indians that flank the Virgin.

• Juan Diego (left) offers the Virgin roses, representing the devotion of indigenous converts

• A feather-covered Indian (right) symbolizes the unconverted nomadic Indians of the northern frontier.

• The Virgin hovers above an eagle perched on a cactus, the symbol of Mexico City, equally confirming her spiritual and juridical authority over the colony and by implication the special status of those who lived there.

ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is and always has been used deliberately and unintentionally to define relationships among individuals, interest groups, cities, and nations.

Those relationships, weather adversarial or not, are based on power.Power can be political, economic, social, cultural or any other.

Power play through architecture is not limited to legislative buildings.It is the nature of subjugation that decides the trend in architecture.

For example, to assert their power over the native Amerindian populations in Latin America, the Spanish and Portuguese rulers resorted to building Catholic churches as a symbol of might of Christianity and the power of

God/good over paganism. Thus, giving justification to the conquest and their domination.

Architecture becomes physical metaphors of conquest and colonization of power and culture.

Baroque• 1600-1750• opulent use of color

and ornaments • large-scale ceiling

frescoes• an external façade

often characterized by a dramatic central projection

• Highly theatrical• emphasis was placed

on bold massing, colonnades, domes, light-and-shade (chiaroscuro), 'painterly' color effects, and the bold play of volume and void

Spanish American Baroque

• 1640s-1800s• combination of the

Native American and Moorish decorative influences

• extremely expressive interpretation of the Churrigueresque

• Twin tower façades • American Baroque

developed as a style of stucco decoration

• fantastically extravagant and visually frenetic architecture known as Mexican Churrigueresque

Solomonic column

spiraling twisting shaft like a corkscrew

twisted S-curve shaft gives energy and

dynamism

Churrigueresque

refers to a Spanish Baroque style of

elaborate sculptural architectural ornament

marked by extreme, expressive and florid decorative detailing,

normally found above the entrance on the main facade

of a building

Estípites

A column or pilaster, tapered at the

bottom and formed of several

elaborately carved sections

Mimics the human form

Talavera • is a type of maiolica pottery, which is

distinguished by a milky-white glaze. Authentic Talavera pottery only comes from the city of Puebla.

• The design of the pieces is highly regulated by tradition. The paint ends up slightly raised over the base. In the early days, only a cobalt blue was used.

• Maiolica pottery was brought to Mexico by the Spanish in the first century of the colonial period.

• Production of this ceramic became highly developed in Puebla because of the availability of fine clays and the demand for tiles from the newly established churches and monasteries in the area

• Came from Asian influences

Solomonic Columns

Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Merced in Lima built in 1614

Churrigueresque

Temple of San Francisco Javier

Tepotzotlán, Mexico

1580

Estípite

Church of Concepcíon,Chiquitanía,

Bolivia1752-6• Monumental size and fortress-like

appearance gave them a dominant position in their villages and recalled that of pre-Conquest temples.

• Wooden and adobe construction, built like large rectangular halls divided into three aisles

• Built quickly and without prior architectural experience

• Large plaza area in the front was used to perform church ceremonies outdoors- echoed pre-Conquest tradition, in which worshippers stood in a plaza facing the pyramid

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios

(Church of Our Lady of Remedies)1574-1629

Cholula, Puebla, Mexico Recognizing the significance of the pyramid mound, the Spanish chose to construct a church upon the remains of the native temple grounds.

The church is situated atop the Tlachihualtepetl (Grand Pyramid). Its worship, like that of its pre-Hispanic native predecessors, is associated with the propitiation of the rain.

This archeological structure consists of several superimposed pyramids, accumulated over six centuries. The base is 450 m (1,480 ft) on each side and 54 m (177 ft) high, twice as large as that of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan and four times bigger in volume than that of Keops in Egypt

Artist rendition of what the Great Pyramid of Cholula would have looked liked. According to myth, the pyramid was built by a giant named Xelhua of adobe bricks, after he escaped a flood in the neighboring Valley of Mexico .The pyramid consists of six superimposed structures, one for each ethnic group that dominated it.

Cathedrals Metropolitan cathedrals and churches were not merely works of architecture but the site of incalculable quantities of artworks, reflecting the patronage of figures ranging from the kings and viceroys themselves to civic and ecclesiastical authorities, religious orders, confraternities, neighborhoods, wealthy families and individuals - European and non-Europeans alike.

Cathedrals were meant to impress the new subjects of Spain as supreme examples of ultimate dominion.

During the 16th century more cathedrals were built in Mexico than in Spain.

dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing visitors and expressing triumph, power and control

Santa María La MenorSanto Domingo, Dominican Republic

It is the oldest cathedral in the AmericasBegun in 1512 and completed in 1540

Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City

• Façade divided into 3 vertical sections• Flanked by two towers

1 2 3

Sagrario Metropolitano(Tabernacle)Lorenzo Rodríguez (1749-1768)

The Cathedral serves a perfect example of Baroque style cathedrals. The cathedrals of the New World were heavily supervised during their construction as they are symbols of power, dominance and religion.

Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico

CityMexico City, Mexico

1573-1817• Began a decade after the Conquest and

completed in 1817!

• Largest building in Colonial America. 360ft long and almost exactly half as wide and tall.

• Dates mostly from 17th and 18th centuries

• Composed mostly of brick and tezontle.*

• Built using the foundation of Templo Mayor

• Faces south, to face the Zócalo (which replaced the main Aztec ceremonial plaza)

• Partly covers the principle Aztec temple- a standard symbol of Christian victory over paganism.

Architecture

• Embraces every Spanish style that ever reached the colonies: Gothic ribs, Renaissance piers and vaults, Baroque scrolls, twisted columns, estípites and Neoclassical finials.

• Rectangular structure enclosing a Latin cross

• Estípites: A column or pilaster, tapered at the bottom and formed of several elaborately carved sections. Typical of late Baroque buildings in Spain and Latin America.

• The façade is Baroque

Chapels • Many of the city’s religious orders,

guilds and confraternities had their own side altar, brimming with gold statues, paintings and silver adornments.

• There are 16 chapels. Each chapel is dedicated to a different saint or saints, and each was sponsored by a religious guild. The chapels contain ornate altars, altarpieces, retablos, paintings, furniture and sculptures.

• The Chapel of Saint Joseph (Spanish: Capilla de San José), built between 1653 and 1660, contains an image of Our Lord of Cacao, an image of Christ most likely from the 16th century. Its name was inspired from a time when many indigenous worshipers would give their alms in the form of cocoa beans.

Two gargantuan Baroque organs (the largest in Latin America)

Cusco Cathedral 1559-1654

Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin

-The Incas built the temple known as Kiswarkancha on the main square in Cusco. It was the Inca temple of Viracocha

-The location of Viracocha's palace was chosen for the purpose of removing the Inca religion from Cusco, and replacing it with Spanish Catholic Christianity.

Because 1559 was only 26 years after the conquistadores entered Cusco in 1533, the vast majority of the population was still of Quechua Inca descent.

The Spaniards used the Incas as a labor workforce to build the cathedral.

• Cathedral format: • Façade divided into 3 vertical sections• Flanked by two towers

The Rosary ChapelSanto DomingoPuebla, Mexico

1690• One of the most overwhelming Baroque

experiences on earth

• Chapel built to house a miraculous image of the Virgin for whom the Dominicans had a special devotion.

• Interweaving, twisting mesh of three-dimensional gold and white stucco covers the walls and dome, incorporating foliate decoration, scrolls, birds, grapes, angels and ribbons

• This technique of stucco work, using a plaster made of flour, egg white and water under gold leaf, was typical of Puebla.

• Design combines tradition of Spain, Italy and Flanders

• Lace-like ornament takes over the architectural elements, sculptures and paintings.

• Allegories of the Life of the Virgin

San Francisco Acatepec

Puebla, MexicoSan Francisco Acatepec has a spectacular facade, described by Mexican art historian Don Manuel Toussaint as a "porcelain temple."

The entire front is totally covered with locally produced talavera (ceramic) tiles in rich reds, blues, and yellows.

(Talavera is the famous trademark pottery of the capital city of Puebla, less than an hour away.)

Usually classified as Baroque architecture the church boast incredible decorative details, some with a distinctly Moorish origin--especially in the central portal.

San Francisco Acatepec

Puebla, Mexico• The front facade features four

alcoves, in two registers, each with a larger than life-size saint, in the top register flanked by candlestick columns, and in the bottom by tile-covered round columns.

• Tiles laid in herringbone patterns and tiles decorated with floral motifs;yesería (plasterwork) in loops and flowers (an Arabic tradition)

Paradise Garden MuralConvent of Malinalco

Malinalco, Mexico1571

The frescos of the lower cloister of Malinalco that depict a botanical and zoological garden intended to offer a description and interpretation of life after death.

For the Aztecs there were four possible places to go I the Afterlife. There were heavens/paradises (3) or Mictlan (the Underworld). The Aztec heavens were described by Sahagún as places of fertility and abundance, full of flowers, fruit and trees. Maya and Aztec thought believed that the souls of the dead were converted into chalchihuites (precious green stones) and after 4 years would be transformed into flying creatures (birds, butterflies and bees) and return to earth.

In Augustinian thought the birds symbolized the liberated souls of totally spiritual individuals.

Flora and FaunaMost of the plants and animals depicted are native to Mexico:

Pineapple, tunas, nopal, morning glory, tlacuache (possum), coyotl, snakes, parrots, hummingbirds, monkeys, speech scrolls, celestial symbols, etc.

Monkeys (ozomatli): depicted are spider monkeys that are hanging from the branches of a cacao tree.

In Mesoamerican cosmogonies, monkeys were ancestral to mankind and endowed with vitalizing, creative powers. Given their nimble grace, songlike hoots, and manual dexterity, they were perceived as the originators of the performing and visual arts, including the elite profession of scribes and painters.

The Christian connotations toward the monkeys and apes were negative. They symbolized the sinners and since apes appeared to parody human actions, they represented the lustful nature of man, or man in a state of degeneracy.

Santa MariaTonantzintla,

Puebla, Mexico1730-1790

• Tonantzintla= Tonantzin (mother goddess)

• Before the Spanish arrived there was a small shrine dedicated to the goddess Tonantzin

• Covered in talavera tile

• considered the ultimate expression of Mexican Baroque style by Indians,

• Reproduced the grotto of Tlaloc as the paradise of Tonantzin (the Virgin)

• modeled plasterwork iconography: tanned angels, children with plumes, Mexican fruits: capulines, tejocotes, nanches, guava, squash, cacao, chiles, corn cobs

2 Religious Interpretations

In this temple converges the visión of a Christian heaven with a clear indigenous visión.

TLALOCHEAVEN

The natives of Tonantzintla wanted

to represent in the dome of the chapel

the heaven of Tlaloc, the rain god.

And every face you see, it is not an

angel, but an Indian who died by

lightning or drowned and reincarnated in

this sky.

TANNEDANGELES

Angels with Feathered

Headdresses

PULPIT

. The pulpit is an extraordinary case, because it is the only one decorated with floral motifs and chilies

CHRISTIAN

Images such as the Annunciation and the Coronation of the Virgin Mary are present.

CASTAS

Casta Paintings of Colonial MéxicoDaniela Susana Gutiérrez Valdez

Department of Art

Casta is an Iberian word meaning “lineage”, “breed” or “race”. It is derived from the older Latin word

castus,“chaste”, implying that the lineage has been kept pure.

Defining castas in Mexico

■ In the years following the conquest of Mexico, most people fell into three distinct ethnoracial categories: Nahuas (indigenous people), peninsular Spaniards, or Africans (both enslaved and free).

■By the early 17th century, these categories broke down quickly and castas were being defined.

■Some estimates place the total number of castas in use in colonial Mexico at sixty or more.

What are Castas?

■ Castas are a “third race” created out of the miscegenation of Spaniards with Amerindians and Black Africans in Colonial Mexico (1521-1821)

■ According to Becky Tatum's Articulation of the Colonial Model, the final phase of colonization is the creation of a "caste system based on racism".

■ Each of these castes was entitled to privileges or were restricted within the society because of its caste.

Casta Paintings

■ Casta paintings are part of the 18th century artistic tradition of Colonial Latin America.

■ trace the complex racial mixing or Mestizaje of the people in New Spain.

■ Each painting depicts a couple along with one or two children.

■ An inscription describing the ethnoracial make-up of the mother, the father, and the child(ren)

■ Initially there were 16 original castas

■ Only about 100 copies exist■ Most of these new terms were

zoologically based and indicated their association with manual labor.

Sistema de Castas1. Español con India, Mestizo2. Mestizo con Española, Castizo3. Castiza con Español, Española4. Español con Negra, Mulato5. Mulato con Española, Morisca6. Morisco con Española, Chino7. Chino con India, Salta atrás8. Salta atras con Mulata, Lobo9. Lobo con China, Gíbaro 10. Gíbaro con Mulata, Albarazado11. Albarazado con Negra, Cambujo12. Cambujo con India, Sambiaga

(Zambiaga)13. Sambiago con Loba, Calpamulato14. Calpamulto con Cambuja, Tente en el

aire15. Tente en el aire con Mulata, No te

entiendo16. No te entiendo con India, Torna

atrás

Casta paintings typically depict a couple along with one or two children, an inscription describing the enthnoracial make-up of the mother, father and the child(ren).

4. De Español y Negra, Mulata4. Of a Spaniard and a Black woman, Mulata

Miguel Cabrera, 4. De Español y Negra, Mulata 1763.

How are different races portrayed? What is implied about their character?

Español y Castiza hace EspañolSpaniard and a Castiza make a

Spaniard Negro y India hace Lobo

A Black man and an Indian woman make a Lobo

What was the purpose of these paintings?■ Some have linked the emphasis on classification and organization to

the influence of the Enlightenment ■ It has been suggested that the meticulous depictions speaks not only

the Spanish fascination with race, but also to the leading philosophical and scientific preoccupations of the time

Enlightment

Costumes from China (Tartarus Septentrionalis), from Athanasius Kircher's China Monumentis qua sacris quà Profanis..., 1667. Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid.

Race and Personality

Popular scientific theories include the practice of phrenology and craniometry, which measured skull sizes to determine behavioral attributes. These pseudoscience practices are commonly referred to as scientific racism. Hypothesis of these practices claimed that people of darker tonality and/or not of European decent were the most likely to possess negative habits and personal traits. These results systematically created and justified discrimination practices.

PhrenologyAccording to Phrenology theories, sections of the brain were linked to specific behaviors such as drunkenness and destructiveness.

These areas of the brain, once measured on the individual, would appear to be larger and more prominent, thus, indicating their prone to such behaviors.

Phrenology is now considered to be scientific racism.

That is, the results of such theories concluded that negative behavioral attributes were often associated with people of color.

Craniometry

Similarly, Craniometry also associated skull size with behaviors.

Skull shapes that were variant to ideal Greek statues were considered to be more animalistic.

STYLISTIC INFLUENCES

Annibale Carracci, L’Arti per via, 1660. Etching

Prints of street vendors were very popular at this time in Europe.

The famous series of Annibale Carracci entitled Arti of Bologna, for example, was printed for the first time in 1646

and reprinted with new titles in 1740 Perhaps influenced by these street vendor scenes, Casta

paintings also depict people of various lower-class occupations.

Jacob van Meurs, Mexicans and Cortés outside of Tenochtitlan, from Arnoldus, Montanus, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld of Beschryving van America, Amsterdam, 1671.

Depictions of Amerindians are always generalized with images of nudity and feathered skirts or headdresses. The Aztecs who fall to their knees in front of Cortés and his men in this 1671 image engraved by Jacob van Meurs for Arnoldus Montanus's Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld wear this costume.

There is, however, no evidence that skirts made only of feathers were ever worn in Mexico, or anywhere else in the Americas.

This imagery will continue well into the nineteenth century. It would be the religious aspect of Aztec life that would fascinate and repulse the Europeans. Particularly, the ritual of human sacrifice made Cortés and others describe the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan as servants of the devil.

Casta Painting, Miguel Cabrera 1763

Flemish Woodcut, Jan de Wael, 17th Century

British Conversational Painting Casta Painting

Spanish Costumbrismo Painting

It is believed that Casta Paintings were influenced by Costumbrismo, an artistic movement that represented daily life and ordinary circumstances

Casta Painting

What do Casta paintings show?

Anonymous 12. de Tente en el Aire y

Mulata, Albarrasado 1775-1800.

Oil on Canvas

What do Casta Paintings show?Paintings suggest typical clothing for

different social classes

Miguel Cabrera, 15. De Mestizo y de India, Coyote, 1763.

■Reveal details of architectural space and home life

■Present meticulous depictions of everyday objects, native flora and fauna, and foodstuffs

Vicente AlbánNoble Woman with Her

Black Slave (Sra. principal con su

negra esclava)Quito, Ecuador

1783

Vicente Albán Indian Woman in Special Attire (India en traje de gala)second half of 18th century)

Quito, Ecuador

■ Because the majority of Casta Paintings still in existence were found in Spain rather than Mexico, it has also been suggested that these were meant as souvenirs

■ These may have been mementos that captured the newness of the “New World”, showing native plants and diverse peoples of the region

Souvenirs of the “New World”

Parish Records

■ Casta labels were more commonly used in parish records, therefore such theories exist that it was priests who identified and categorized people racially

■ It is known that these works preceded the creation of the caste system and their illustrations are perhaps made to accompany this system. They would then be visual markers used to help parish members in identifying their congregation, especially in baptismal records.

Maintaining social and political control in Colonial New Spain

Although the use and purpose for production of

Casta Paintings remains uncertain, these generally

suggest the fascination with race and limpieza de

sangre (purity of blood) that characterized colonial

mentalities. Spaniards used their elaborate system

of classification to maintain social and political

control, allowing the “pureblooded” to hold the

top position in colonial society.